The Mayan number system

The Maya people, who live in Meso America, are the descendants of one of the earliest civilisations. Already three thousand years ago, they were using advanced mathematics, and they were among the first to use a symbol for the zero. The Maya’s number system is just like the number system we are used to, based on place value. But they used the base twenty, instead of ten. Maybe they chose that number, because it is the number of fingers and toes of a person?

They counted in units, twenties, four-hundreds, just like we count in units, tens and hundreds. 20 raised to the power of 0 equals 1. 20 raised to the power of 1 equals 20. 20 raised to the power of 2 equals 400. 20 raised to the power of 3 equals 8000.

The first twenty numbers, 0 through 19, looked like this. The oval, or seashell, symbolised 0. The dots, or pieces of corn, symbolised units, and the lines, or sticks, symbolised fives. Numbers greater than 19 were written by placing the symbols in groups, or positions, on top of each other. A higher position was written above the lower, instead of writing it to the left of it, as we do.

Numbers were read from top to bottom. A symbol in the lowest position showed the number of units. The symbols in the next position showed twenties, etc. So, what did the number 20 look like? Well, here you move from 19 ones in the lowest position and write a dot in the next position to show that you have one twenty.

To show that you moved to the next position you put an oval in the first position, which symbolises 0 units. So what is the largest number you can write using the first two positions, the units and twenties? Well, you can write 19 in the lowest position, which is 19 ones, and 19 in the next position, which is 19 twenties or 19 times 20 equals 380 The number is therefore 380 plus 19 In other words, the biggest number you can write using the first 2 positions is 399. After that, you have to move on to the next position, which shows four-hundreds. The dot in the highest position symbolises 1 four-hundred.

The oval in the centre position symbolises 0 twenties, and the oval in the lowest position symbolises 0 units. How do you write the number 3456? Eight four-hundreds or 8 times 400 equals 3200 Twelve twenties or 12 times 20 equals 240 And sixteen units or 16 times 1 equals 16 give us 3200 + 240 plus 16 equals 3456 Which number in our number system is equivalent to this? We start with the highest position: 1 line stands for 5 four-hundreds or 5 times 400 equals 2000 We then look at the centre position: One dot stands for 1 twenty or 1 times 20 equals 20 Finally, we look at the lowest position. An oval stands for 0 units or 0 times 1 equals 0 2000 plus 20 plus 0 equals 2020 How would you write your year of birth using the Mayan symbols?